Druid Heights Branding

In a pilot project under NDC’s Community Design Works programming, NDC and AIGA Baltimore, a professional association for graphic designers, partnered to provide pro bono community branding assistance to Druid Heights Community Development Corporation. Volunteer graphic designers created a new logo and visual brand for the neighborhood organization, which you can now see on their website, and is being officially rolled out between March and May 2017 in digital and print media, and eventually the built environment.

Having previously partnered with NDC on streetscaping for West North Avenue, Druid Heights CDC contacted NDC about pursuing a more in-depth branding initiative at the same time that AIGA Baltimore reached out about opportunities in West Baltimore. AIGA recruited volunteers Tiffany Small, Tarbia Minto, Rebecca Kowalcizk, Leo Brady (also an AIGA board member), and Baird Clinkscales from their membership and NDC program manager Laura Wheaton coordinated the project alongside AIGA officers Kerry Korrer, Jermaine Bell, Vanessa Ulrich, and Joseph Brown. The design volunteers met with Druid Heights leadership and community representatives to listen to their thoughts on the current logo, a phoenix, and what ideas and images epitomized the neighborhood as they saw it. Design volunteers presented six logo ideas at an internal design review, and later presented four at community meeting in May 2016, during which the community informally voted on their favorite, the final logo being the most popular among the options presented.

The project went on hold for the duration of the 2016 summer to accommodate Druid Heights staff’s focus on their popular youth summer program. Upon resuming in late fall, the Druid Heights CDC board voted to confirm the logo selection from the May 2016 meeting. NDC/AIGA design volunteers Tarbia Minto, Rebecca Kowalcizk, Leo Brady, Jermaine Bell, and Joseph Brown then worked to create a branding package based on that logo for Druid Heights CDC, including logo files, fonts, branded colors, and a guide to using them in print and web media. They in total donated 185.5 hours of service with an estimated market value of $18,757.50.

Congratulations to Druid Heights CDC on their new logo and brand, and thank you to AIGA Baltimore for partnering with us on this awesome project!